LONDON (Reuters) – A dip in airline bookings in the second half of June give grounds for caution about the prospects for the industry in the coming months as COVID-19 cases start to spike again in certain countries, the chief economist of airline body IATA said.
Brian Pearce said that while June had on average been been better than the month before, the second half of the month had seen a drop in bookings, and that prolonged travel restrictions to the United States or Latin America could hit its base case forecast for the year.
“There was a dip in bookings in the second half of June, as coronavirus cases picked up… This is causing us to be rather cautious about prospects in the next few months,” he said.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout, editing by Louise Heavens)
